IIT Madras reclaims beaches by applying modern technology to the old

The implementation of modern technology to ancient techniques helped IIT MadrasTeam to successfully reclaim Kerala's beaches that were lost to erosion. The Kerala government had earlier requested them to check erosion along the beaches. The IIT team worked to stop erosion at 25 eroded sites of two km each around 25 coastal villages, thus reclaiming 50 km of Kerala's beaches. Prof V Sundar of department ocean engineering in IIT-M said that the team from his department worked around the Groin Fields technology which was last used in the 1960s in India to stop erosion. This technology was later "completely forgotten". The IIT team blended a carefully designed idea with scientific process into this age old technology which stopped erosion activities from shifting to other areas and curbed erosion altogether. The method involves building a narrow structure out into the water from a beach to prevent erosion. This method can actually recover the land lost to the sea. However, it entails very accurate calculations like quantity of sediments and direction of long-shore currents. Sundar said that conserving the coastline has national and global implications. The fact that India has a vast coastline, doesn't mean that it could be taken for granted. There is an urgent need to conserve beaches and their socio-economic aspects.